Page 10 of My Rules for Revenge (Twisted YA Mysteries #1)

JACOB

C arlos and I went to the gaming store down the block from Brightwood High to celebrate our recent victory. We bought an expansion pack for Worldly Wizard Quest and giddily sat on a bench in Central Lake Plaza.

It was a small shopping center, but it had the essentials.

A moderately sized grocery store, a dingy GameRocks store, a suspicious laundromat, a dimly lit Chinese restaurant, an empty mattress store that was probably a money-laundering front for the mob, a luxuriously built bank, and a closed-down adult video store called Tammy’s Toys .

Carlos, Manny, and I used to semi-regularly go there to mess around.

I used to spar with Carlos while Manny hissed at us to put the dildos away.

These were just the things we did to avoid the annoying things we went through at home.

We never wanted to do bullshit chores like doing the dishes or washing the car, so we all came up with the same excuses to get out of doing them.

We all had multiple extracurricular activities at school that we needed to attend, or we needed to study together.

Thankfully, we typically got stellar grades in all our classes, so our parents never suspected much.

Regarding my parents, I never wanted to be near my mother because she liked to ask too many questions.

Sometimes I felt like she was interrogating me.

This happened whenever I would come home too late.

She was someone I simply needed to avoid.

Carlos liked to say it was a medical obligation to remain one thousand feet away from her at all times.

While seated on the bench, Carlos and I took out our phones. We scrolled through all the social media apps and hysterically laughed at all the hate Heather had received.

“This is the greatest thing we have ever done,” I said proudly.

“Dude, it’s going viral,” Carlos added.

“They’re obliterating her. I love the internet. You give the people what they want, and they deliver. It’s like feeding a self-sufficient war machine of truth and justice. This is what Heather deserves for doing what she did to me. She messed with the wrong guy.”

“I heard she talked to Newman and tried to get the police involved. Apparently, he shut her down, but I don’t know. We have to make sure our tracks are covered,” Carlos said in a concerned tone.

“She can’t prove anything, Carlos. Manny did what he always does. Don’t worry.”

“I’m super down with doing this, and I’ll stay loyal no matter what, but I want to make sure we don’t get screwed over.”

“Oh, I’m not getting screwed over. I’m on track to go to Bright Rock University on a full scholarship, and if anyone messes with that, I’ll kill them,”I asserted.

“You think she’ll do something to get back at us?” Carlos asked.

“She can try, but I’ll just go to Newman and shed a few tears. If she assaults me again, she’ll get suspended.”

“Maybe we should bait her.”

“Nah, that’s too risky. Let’s stay quiet for now. Let’s just enjoy the show,” I suggested.